The Agricultural Generational Gap

My grandfather has been living with us for the last two months. It's been interesting, to say the least. I love him, but we do not see eye to eye on a number of things... and one of those is farming.

For almost the entirety of my farm job last year, Papaw would call me about once a week, and we would have the following conversation:

Him: So.... why are you working on a farm?
Me: Well, you know, sustainable agriculture and learning about issues concerning farmers and public health and stuff....
Him: Oh, okay.
-One week later-
Him: So.... why are you working on a farm?

I have a sneaking suspicion that this is a common attitude his generation has towards those who, like me, are approaching farming despite never before having so much as picked an ear of corn - i.e. "Generation Organic".*

Papaw was born in 1931 and has lived his entire life in Milltown, Indiana. Milltown is a very small town in southern Indiana, in a county with so few people that they don't even have a stoplight. He spent his formative years on a farm, where his family grew pretty much all the food they needed to survive. They had four cows, a few pigs, chickens, and produce - a homestead, basically. When they needed a little extra money, they went to town in the family's Model T and sold eggs and cream. After a brief stint in the Navy, Papaw got a job with DuPont in Louisville, where he worked until he retired.

To my grandfather, farming is something he was required to do. Being in a position to purchase food, rather than grow it all himself, was a mark of prosperity. You only farmed if you needed to.

Not to mention, he helped pay for my college education... something he never had. From his perspective, it probably looks like I'm just throwing all that money away. After all, you don't need an education to farm, right?

But here's the thing... you do need an education to farm. My grandfather received his education from his parents and grandparents, and they from theirs. His education was distilled over generations of farmers making mistakes and learning from them to find what worked best. Farming is something that takes observation, skill, perseverance, and the ability to problem solve.

Once the middle of the 20th century hit, agriculture in this country underwent a radical change. Technological advancements enabled fewer people to grow larger amounts of food. The number of farms dropped, while the acreage of those farms went through the roof. Suddenly, you didn't have to farm to make ends meet. You could have a job in the city and shop at the supermarket.

And a generation of children grew up without knowing how to farm, and all that lovely knowledge disappeared.

My grandfather will probably never understand why I feel compelled - yes, compelled - to farm. Part of that is because of his short-term memory loss, which means that he forgets everything I tell him within minutes.

But even if he could remember, I don't know if he would really get it. He has always taken for granted the warmth of the sun on the back of his neck, the heft of a shovel, the feel of Indiana soil crumbling between his fingers.

And I have always taken for granted that, if I need to, I can just run down to the store and pick up a head of lettuce. Understanding - or not, as the case may be - is a two way street.




*I say this because he's not the only member of his generation who has tried to convince me that farming is sheer madness and a waste of time. One of the nicer responses I've received was, "Well.... I guess it's a stable occupation..."

Back To Square One. Again.

What does a head of cabbage have to do with job searching, you ask? Absolutely nothing.

Hello all. It's been a couple weeks... and what an eventful two weeks it has been, between Thanksgiving, helping my parents do some home renovation work, and excavating my pit of a room as Step One of the "I'm Going to Grad School Next Year and Need to Move Out" plan*...all of which helped to distract me from the email I got right after arriving home.

The email, from the Sieberts of Clear Spring Creamery fame (remember them?) basically told me that while they like me, they can't afford to have a full-time, paid intern who will be leaving in August. They did offer me an unpaid but full room/board sort of situation - not unlike being a WWOOF-er - for a few days a week, which would allow me to find a part-time job off farm. It's not ideal, but what is?

It is, however, a plan fully dependent on my ability to find some sort of part time work. Which I definitely could, but I am picky, and I'm the first to admit it. Also, said part time work would likely be in Baltimore or DC, which would be a lot of driving.

This is unfortunately the same story I've heard from multiple farms - "We'd like to hire you, but we need someone here the full season. Sorry." So while I'm not totally back at Square One... I'm sort of back at Square One.Which has me re-evaluating my situation. After some thought, I've come up with the following three options:



Continue the Farm Search
Just because I keep coming up empty doesn't mean it will happen forever. I actually sent in a farm application just this morning. Who knows? It never hurts.


WWOOF-ing Galore
Not gonna lie... I find this a very attractive idea. It gives me the chance to travel around, to work on a variety of different farms, meet a ton of people, and to continue learning. It allows me to be as flexible as I want with my schedule, which is handy. And wonder of wonders... one of my AmeriCorps friends emailed me just yesterday asking if I'd like to WWOOF with her in California for a month, starting in late January. Serendipity? Perhaps.

There are some cons, however. A big one is money. I saved a few thousand this past year, which is not too shabby, but I was planning on keeping it back for grad school. So before I go haring off into the Wide World of WWOOF, I will need to do some calculating and some budgeting.

Another con is that, in an ideal world, I'd like to stick close to DC for (ahem) personal reasons. At any rate, the idea bears some thought.


Other Job Options
Although farm work is pretty high on my list of what I'd like to do, there are a lot of other opportunities out there that could be very valuable learning experiences. There's a lot to be said for working in a nonprofit or for an agency where I can learn about grassroots organizing, the legislative process, media/communications work, or other skills useful for advocacy.

I've been checking Idealist and Good Food Jobs regularly for internship opportunities - sent in two applications this morning, as a matter of fact. A lot of those jobs happen to be unpaid, however, and if I'm going to be unpaid, it will be while WWOOF-ing.




So that is where I am. Updates to follow, of course. And any thoughts or ideas are appreciated, naturally.




*No judgment, please. I have 25 years worth of stuff in there.

Girls just wanna have fun... at Chatham University?

 

I had the pleasure of wrapping up my week long Road Trip O' Fun on Tuesday with a visit to Chatham University in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, who happen to be the proud parents of an bouncing baby Master of Arts in Food Studies program.

I wasn't really sure what to expect. For one, this is their first year doing the program, and I was a little wary of a brand new enterprise. Second, I had never heard of Chatham University before, and it was only by the grace of Google that I knew about them at all... and don't they (meaning just about everyone who has given me advice about grad school) say that going to a well-recognized school opens doors? Third, Chatham college (the undergraduate portion) is a girls-only school, which - let's be honest - weirds me out a tad. So, when I arrived at Chatham, I was pretty sure it was not what I wanted.

I was first disarmed by the beauty of the campus. I mean, it's really beautiful. Really. I say this having attended Indiana University, which regularly wins accolades for its limestone-encrusted charm. Chatham's Shadyside Campus is small, but chock full of historic buildings and grand old houses. Also, it had been snowing all night, turning all the hills and architecture into some kind of postcard-perfect wintry learning paradise.

Then I started my full slate of morning meetings with Michael May, the Director of Graduate Studies; Alice Julier, the Food Studies Program Director; and several of the students. These chats had the effect of quickly stripping me of any remaining uncertainty. For example, as Alice explained, this program was created with food systems and social justice in mind. It's almost as if they have people interested in advocacy (*ahem*) in mind. Oh, wait..... they do.

Just because I had never heard of Chatham doesn't mean they aren't unknown, especially in the sustainability world. Their innovative approach to education and their ideas for the future (more on that below) are gathering a lot of attention and momentum in the very areas I hope to penetrate one day.

And even if they are a new program, most of the students there view that as a plus. They have the opportunity to help shape the program, and the flexibility to do almost anything they want, said such helpful folks as Amanda, Teresa, Jerallyn and Arielle. Plus, as they jovially pointed out, they are the guinea pigs in this situation. By the time I would get there, a lot of the kinks would already be worked out.

As a brand new program, Chatham is building the MA from the ground up - literally, as it turns out. I speak of the Eden Hall Farm Campus, which is about 45 minutes from the main campus. It is to be the site of their pioneering sustainable campus, and the home base for the new School of Sustainability and the Environment. They will be breaking ground this spring and should finish construction by Fall 2012 - which happens to be when I would start. Oh, serendipity!

The Eden Hall Campus Master Plan has a lot of great information about the future of Chatham's sustainability initiative, including the MA in Food Studies - it gives details about what the campus will look like, the phases of construction and development, and their goals for academic excellence, community building, and proper stewardship of the environment. Their vision summarizes it up pretty well:

As a living and learning community, Eden Hall Campus will encourage students and faculty to immerse themselves in a setting that promotes the study and advancement of sustainable development based on restorative principles. This is a dynamic, exciting place—a living laboratory in which to explore fundamentally different approaches to how we manage resources, both physical and intellectual. It will inspire us to model development and behavior, changing the way we occupy the land, design buildings, interact with our communities, fuel our economies, and design systems for energy, waste, water, transportation, and food.

Chatham claims to be the first academic institution to design and build a campus that integrates sustainable design, academics, and community in this way - and as far as I can tell, they are. I haven't found a single other program with this kind of approach. As Alice explained to me, most other schools that offer some version of a Food Studies program, like Boston University (who I visited in October) or NYU, have just stuck it into their existing coursework, rather than build their coursework around the concept.

As a result, this makes Chatham look very attractive to someone like me, who is less interested in the cultural/historical context of food - done very well by BU and NYU - and more into the nitty-gritty, hands-on, experiential methods that Chatham is piloting. (Not that you can't study such things at those schools, but it's much harder.) When I asked Alice what they have that the above-mentioned, more established programs don't, she immediately responded, "A farm!" with a laugh. Meaning an actual physical place where students can put into practice what they learn in a classroom? But of course.

The farm isn't the only place where Chatham students are getting practical experience. There are also experiential classes in Culinary Arts - although that's hardly unheard of, and is even a requirement at NYU. But beyond even that, the Food Studies program here has already established relationships with restaurants, farmers markets, urban gardens, and non-profits in the Pittsburgh area - and students are required to do three credit hours of internships with them.

I could probably write for another hour about everything that excited me about Chatham, but instead I'm going to sign off here. This entry is already slightly (and by that I mean ridiculously) long.

Next time... breaking news on internships for the 2011 growing season!